Former Petroleum Minister, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah has dared the NPP to fund the Free SHS project from the resources they pledged to introduce when they assume power and desist from touching monies from the Heritage Fund.
According to him, the time has come for the NPP to deliver on the promises of introducing strategies to generate resources to solve major problems in the country, maintaining that since the Free SHS policy is a major leap in the direction of development, leaders of the party should put together their strategies and generate enough capital to fund the project since they claim to have the “men” and the “brains”.
“we’ll remember not too long ago in the campaign, the NPP were telling the whole Ghana that they have the men, they have the brains, we are dumb, we don’t know where the money is, they have the resources, they are just coming in and plug the holes, and make sure that they bring the resources, they have it, now is the time to make it happen” he indicated.
Mr. Kofi Buah argued that there are several alternative methods the NPP can look at to solve the issue rather than taking from monies reserved for the future generation of Ghana, adding that the 260 million dollars already generated from the 9% allocated to the fund is nothing close to the total projected amount.
“When we talk about this particular oil production, what we are talking about is a maximum of 25 to 30 years, and we are saying that only 9% is what we are setting aside for future generations….we are just in the fifth year and all we have is 260 million dollars and it is not even close, 30% of what we want to achieve and so the issue is, is this the only place we can look?”, he said.
He also mentioned that though the NDC is supports the Free SHS policy and is committed to education, they will not support the monies for this being taken from the Heritage funds which should be reserved solely for the future generations.
He concluded by advising the government to look to other means of generating money for this project rather than touching the Heritage Funds which he says is “hands-off”
“We are saying that we support the free SHS, in fact, it is not just that we support, we started the progressive implementation of it, and we’ve done it and we’ve prioritized education, if you look at the last two budgets, how much was allocated to the budget was historic, and that should tell you that the NDC is committed to education, but we know what is hands-off and we are saying that the Heritage Fund is hands-off, let’s look at other ways and support this agenda but not the “pity 9%,……this is not the time to touch that money.”
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